N.Z. wheat shortfall forecast by U.S.

Press, 20 April 1982, Page 28

N.Z. wheat shortfall forecast by U.S.

NZPA staff correspondent

Washington New Zealand will apparently need to import 60,000 to 70,000 tonnes of wheat this year, but the good news is that record production in the United States and world-wide will keep the price low. . The estimate of New Zealand’s shortfair for the 198182 year is made by the United States Department of Agriculture in a field report from Wellington. : It gives' the total New Zealand, wheat crop for 198182 as 302,000 tonnes.

The United States produced two billion bushels more wheat, feed grains, and soybeans this marketing year than last, the Secretary of Agriculture, Mr John Block,

told a Congress sub-commit-tee. This increase alone was greater than the total output of any other country except the Soviet Union, China, and India.

Nearly two-thirds of the American wheat will be exported. Domestic demand is lower than forecast — a result of the recession — and stocks are increasing-. Foreign demand is likely to set a new record, but the low prices will keep the return to American farmers below last year’s record exports, the first such monetary drop in 13 years. New Zealand importers, and consumers at the end of the line, are unlikely to see

the prices from the same perspective as the Americans, however. The continued strengthening of the American dollar against the New Zealand dollar means the wheat will still be expensive in New Zealand terms.